


Forgotten Anniversary

by DegrassiFanatic



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Light Angst, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:09:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28679427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DegrassiFanatic/pseuds/DegrassiFanatic
Summary: “Hey Baby Girl.” he greets brightly, already walking over to Penelope.Morgan waits for her to turn around and press a kiss into his cheek like usual but it never happens. He isn’t even graced with an acknowledgement of his presence.“I brought you coffee.” he says, hoping that maybe it will be enough to get her attention, “It’s in your favourite mug.”
Relationships: Penelope Garcia/Derek Morgan
Kudos: 51





	Forgotten Anniversary

**Author's Note:**

> oh no, not me again with poorly written fics

As Morgan wanders down the hall towards Penelope’s tech lair, his whole body is buzzing with a combination of both excitement and nervousness; all of that being attributed to both the homemade card and blue velvet box in the back pocket of his jeans. In his hands, he holds two mugs; one decorated with glitter and unicorns, while the other is just plain white. 

Once he’s in front of Penelope’s door, he uses his back to push it open. He spots her standing near one of her computers as she straightens out the monitor cables, her back towards Morgan. 

“Hey Baby Girl.” he greets brightly, already walking over to Penelope. 

Morgan waits for her to turn around and press a kiss into his cheek like usual but it never happens. He isn’t even graced with an acknowledgement of his presence. 

“I brought you coffee.” he says, hoping that maybe it will be enough to get her attention, “It’s in your favourite mug.”

Once again, Penelope remains quiet. Her hands are impatiently fumbling around the cords and if she’s not careful she might even rip one or two. Morgan sets down both the mugs of coffee down, somewhere away from all of Penelope’s precious technology. He strides over to her side and gently tugs the cables out of her hands before untangling them with ease. 

He shoots a smile in her direction but Penelope is still staring at the cables, a frown on her face. 

“How was your day?” Morgan asks. 

“Alright.” she answers.

_At least she’s talking to him now. That’s a start._

Penelope twists around before stalking to the other end of the room to go and rummage through her desk organizers. Once she finds a hot pink pen with pompoms at the end of it, she rips off a sticky note and scribbles something down urgently. 

“How are you feeling?” he questions. 

The pen slows down. 

“Angry. I’m— I’m angry.” she replies honestly, “And you should know why.”

_He should?_

“I should?” he blurts. 

It’s apparently the wrong thing to say because right away Penelope whips around and glares at him. None of the effect of the look is lost even though she’s wearing a dress with daisies and yellow hearts.

“Well, since you don’t know, you should get out.” she sneers, “Now.”

_Oh no._

“I’m not leaving.” he announces.

“Well, I’m not talking anymore.” Penelope declares as she twists around to go back to whatever she was doing. 

Letting out a deep sigh, Morgan leans against the edge of the desk he was near and folds his arms against his chest. Mentally, he sorts through recaps of what happened yesterday to figure out what he could have possibly done wrong. 

It was a normal day; Morgan drove the two of them to work, he made Penelope coffee, they shared lunch in his office, and that was that. The only thing out of the ordinary was that Morgan didn’t come home last night. He lied to Penelope and told her that he and Rossi were having a guys’ night, when in reality he needed Rossi’s approval on the ring he had bought. 

“Is it something I did?” he asks.

Although he doesn’t get any verbal response, he can see the way Penelope’s pen stops gliding on the paper and that is confirmation enough for him. 

“Did I miss something?” he probes. 

Her fingers twitch around the pen. All of her pent-up energy inside of her needs an outlet. 

“Was it important?” 

Within a second, Penelope whirls around and stalks over to him. Once she’s close enough, she jabs a finger into his chest, her nail almost stabbing through the fabric of his shirt. 

“Was it important?” she shouts, “You missed our one year anniversary yesterday! Of course it was important!”

Immediately, Morgan stands up straight.

“What?” he questions, “It was not our anniversary yesterday.”

“Yes, it was!” she insists.

_What on Earth was she talking about?_

“Today’s our anniversary!” Morgan shouts, matching the volume of Penelope’s voice.

The fury on Penelope’s face drains away and is replaced by confusion. She cocks her head to the side as she looks at him expectantly. 

Morgan reaches behind himself and pulls out the card he had made at Rossi’s house yesterday, ignoring the older man’s teasing the entire time. There’s a crude drawing of the two of them on the front, dotted with stars, glitter, and everything else Penelope liked. He flips it open and reveals hospital discharge papers pasted on the inside, with tiny hearts and a heartfelt message written overtop of it.

“We got together the day I was let out of the hospital, last year after that unsub shot me.” he reminds her as he points at the date neatly printed, “See? November 15.”

She yanks the card away from Morgan before bringing it up to her face to see for herself. As she mouths the words to herself, he watches her freeze up once she realizes she was the one who had gotten the date wrong. 

“Yesterday wasn’t our anniversary.” Penelope confirms. 

“No.” he says as he shakes his head. 

“And you didn’t just ditch me to go hang out with Rossi.” 

“No.” he says again as he shakes his head, “In all honesty, I went to Rossi because I needed his opinion on this.”

Anxiety worms it’s way into his chest but he stamps down the feeling while he reaches into his back pocket. He pulls out the velvet box and lets it rest in the palm of his hand.

At the sight of it, Penelope lets out a gasp as she brings her hands up to her mouth. 

“Wait, are you—”

“No! No!” he exclaims after realizing what pulling out a ring box may look like, “I’m not proposing.”

“Thank God.”

Both of them let out a sigh of relief, which then morphs into a gentle laugh as they stare at each other over the ring box. 

“It’s just a ring.” he explains, “And if it’s alright with you, I’d like to put it on you.”

Wordlessly, Penelope presents her with her left hand. Morgan flips open the box and pulls out the ring. The metal glints in the fluorescent lighting and suddenly, his hands feel too big and clumsy to be putting this ring on Penelope. 

She must see the way his hands are shaking because soon after she wraps the fingers of her free hand around his wrist. Her thumb rubbing soothing circles.

Needing no more encouragement, Morgan slides the ring down her finger. It looks both out of place and right at home between the rest of Penelope’s bright and colourful jewellery. 

Her hand slips out of his and is soon at the back of his neck. She presses their mouths together in a chaste kiss. Her glasses knocking against the bridge of his nose in a way that always makes him smile. 

“I’m sorry I got all mad.” she whispers after they pull apart. 

“It’s alright.”

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for an anon on tumblr, and you too can come yell at me at Degrassi-Fanatic
> 
> and yes i wholeheartedly believe derek morgan would make a card for his girlfriend because he is big softie at heart


End file.
